All the World's a Stage
by The Fantabulous Nemo Dexter
Summary: When Lucy ran away, she planned on moving to another city, getting a job there and starting over. What she didn't plan on was joining a circus, more specifically, Fairy Tail. Swept into a new life of pink haired fire eaters, cake loving knife throwers, and one of the weirdest groups of performers she's ever met, what could possibly go wrong? Nalu circus AU.


_**I don't own Fairy Tail.**_

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><p>Lucy Heartfilia was cold.<p>

Not just, cold though; absolutely, one hundred percent, to-the-bone, _freezing. _Her meagre shelter – an oak tree, that in her complete and utter boredom, she had decided to name 'Steve' – was actually making the rain seem _worse. _Instead of keeping her dry, as one would think a tree would do, it was letting her have the rain in massive blobs of pure undiluted chill. But when the choice was between trying to walk through hail, in the dark, where there could be multiple weirdoes or worse- weirdoes sent by her father- and staying under a tree, it wasn't exactly a hard decision.

"Screw you, Steve." She muttered under her breath. "You should be keeping me dry." Cursing the failing shelter and herself for talking to a _tree _of all things, she scowled into the distance at the glowing light of the circus tent. Despite being nearly a mile away, she could still hear all of the cheers and gasps of the audience. This circus was only there for one night, and then they were travelling to the next town. She knew this because of the soggy leaflet that had been nailed to the tree, only to become so waterlogged it couldn't stay up anymore, and had fallen just at the right moment to land with supreme comedic timing on her head. There had been pictures of the performers, but the rain had made the ink run in such a way that their faces had turned into strange smears of colour, making them somewhat disturbing to look at. Judging by the sudden flares of light emitting from the tent, the current performer was the fire eater. His picture was a demented pink splodge, and his name looked something like the words 'Nash Drag queen'.

That last part was probably wrong. Unless that was actually his name, in which case Lucy had no idea how he could ever be taken seriously. Poor guy.

But, aside from possibly having one of the most embarrassing names in human history, Lucy envied him. She envied _all _of the performers. They got to travel, see the world, and apparently they never stayed in the same place twice. Even if their shows made hardly anything, they would still be _free. _The exact opposite of her: locked up inside a boring and pretentious mansion, where nobody even acknowledged her, but absolutely loaded. Her one bid to become free of that life had led her here; the middle of some random field, on some random hill, under some random tree, and being rained upon more than the universe should ever let anything be. She had decided to run away, and when she was far enough, get a job and start a whole new life. That was what she had planned.

What she _hadn't _planned was that the money she had taken ran out a lot sooner than she had expected. She had started out with 200,000 J, spent some of it here and there, and then suddenly: only 10,00 J left, and sitting in the middle of nowhere, and not even close to being far away enough to restart. Even though she had managed to get some of the shopkeepers to lower their prices by leaning over the counter in _just _the right fashion, everything had gone to hell. The worst part was that she was barely two miles out of Acalypha. Not enough money to get the train to either Magnolia or Crocus, and the other alternatives were to either hitch-hike, or walk. Both of those were terrible ideas, if she didn't want to end up robbed and lying dead in a ditch within the next week.

Sighing, Lucy flopped against the tree, immediately regretting it as the slimy damp seeped into her already-soaked shirt.

_That's it. As soon as this rain lets up, I am OUT OF HERE! _She thought to herself. _And anyway, this storm can't go on for that much longer…can it?_

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><p>As she later found out, the storm actually lasted until five in the morning the next day. Aching all over, and sleep deprived, she trudged down the dusty road that claimed to lead to the next city. There <em>had <em>to be some kind of cheap inn somewhere along the route. Hopefully one devoid of homicidal maniacs; she knew how to defend herself, but wasn't banking on her skills being that good.

Five minutes later and she hadn't found an inn, but _had _found a roadside café, and her mood had been greatly improved by a hot mug of coffee. The staff seemed friendly – well, she was their first customer of the day, so they would be. Feeling a lot better than she had done, and ready to face the road again, she left the café, thanking what she now considered to be the greatest thing in the world: caffeine.

Surprisingly enough, it only took thirty minutes for her mood to be ruined again, as the skies burst open and showered her with a torrent of drizzle. If the weather was a person, she would be punching them in the face right now. Lucy seriously considered going back to the Heartfilia mansion, and then mentally berated herself for even thinking of going back there. This was supposed to be her new life…even if her grand plan was all falling to pieces. After another half hour, the drizzle turned to hail, and she dropped her bag and fell to the ground in defeat, tipping her head back and glaring at the sky.

"Damn you, weather. Damn. You."

"Hey, are you okay?"

Startled by the sudden presence behind her, she whipped round to be met with one of the best sights she had seen in ages. It was a boy around her age, with pink hair and a white scarf around his neck, wearing a one-sleeved black coat with gold around the edges and loose trousers, accompanied by sandals (how he could be wearing those in this weather, she had no idea). But the best thing wasn't the boy himself – even if he _was _kind of good looking. It was the fact that he was carrying an umbrella.

She stood up, trying to get as far under the umbrella as possible without invading so much of his personal space that she seemed like a weirdo.

"I'm fine. Well I am now, anyway, because I was being rained on, but then you showed up with an umbrella and…" _Dammit, Lucy, stop babbling! He could be a psychopath! This could be his trick to get people to trust him! _"Um…I'm not trying to be rude, but who exactly are you?"

"I'm with the circus that was in town last night. I'm the fire eater."

"Is your name _really _Nash Drag queen?" she blurted, and then clapped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from saying anything worse, her cheeks reddening.

He blinked at her then walked away. "If you're going to insult me, then I won't let you share the umbrella." He remarked dryly.

"No! It was on the flyer I found!"

"_That _was on the flyer? I'm going to have to talk to Reedus about this…"

"The rain had smudged it, and I couldn't read it properly!"

He stopped, allowing her to catch up, and she noticed that he was grinning. "Thank Mavis for that."

"So, where is the rest of the circus anyway? Why aren't you on the wagons with them?"

"They stopped off at the café back there because Erza wanted strawberry cake," he explained, like it made perfect sense even though Lucy had no idea who this 'Erza' was, "and I'm not on the wagons because they are evil machines of death, and I don't want to spend one second longer on them than I have to."

She laughed nervously. "They can't be that bad, can they?"

He sighed. "Everybody says that, and still I remain unconvinced."

She shivered – the hail was still falling, and her outfit was still damp. The fire-eater evidently noticed this, and wrapped his arm around her, causing her to wonder why she had been worried about invading his personal space earlier, because he evidently didn't care. She decided not to say anything, though, because A, she was now further under the umbrella, and B, he was warm, more than any human being should naturally be.

"Natsu Dragneel, human radiator, at your service." He smirked.

They walked on for a few minutes, before Lucy asked: "So, Natsu, where is the circus going next?"

"I _think_ it's going to Magnolia…"

She jumped at this chance. "Could I come with you?"

Natsu ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't see why not. I'll have to ask Master though. But why would you want to travel with us?"

She fidgeted uncomfortably. "Umm…well, I'm running away…"

"You're not a criminal, are you? Because the council hates us enough already, and if they found out we were harbouring criminals…"

"No! It's nothing like that!" she said hurriedly, before he could assume any further. "I just need to get out of town, and I don't have any money on me right now."

Natsu shrugged. "Should be fine then."

They were interrupted by the sound of several vehicles behind them, and Natsu groaned. "The death machine is here…"

Lucy turned, expecting to see a line of worn down, rickety carts, but was instead greeted with a trail of painted, sturdy-looking wagons, being driven by a rather short old man. As it drew level, the driver stopped the wagons.

"And who is this?" he questioned, eyebrows raised.

"She wants to travel with us until we get to Magnolia."

"Hi. I'm Lucy." She beamed. _This is it, Lucy! Your ticket out of Acalypha! Do not mess this up! _

The driver scrutinized her then nodded. "She's fine to travel with us. Plus, she's kind of cute too…"

"Master, you pervert!"

She climbed onto the trailer, and stepped through the door next to the driver's seat, into a room filled with various people. Natsu flopped onto a seat almost immediately, all of his previous energy seemingly disappearing, and moaning something about 'evil transport'. She glanced around, noticing that all eyes were trained on _her, _and hurriedly stammered "I'm Lucy, and I'm going to be travelling with you to Magnolia!" They accepted this, and most went back to what they were originally doing, but some came over to her. One of these people – a _very _shirtless guy – was actually walking over to Natsu (much to Lucy's relief. This guy looked like some kind of pervert, wandering around half -naked), and started to poke him.

"Flame-brain. Oi. Just because you're out of it now doesn't mean our fight's over."

"Go away, Ice Princess…" Natsu murmured, sinking into the chair. "If you're going to fight me, at least put some clothes on…"

The shirtless one looked down at himself, yelped in surprise, and ran off.

"That always happens," Said the other person breezily, a girl with red hair wearing armour, "so if you're going to be staying with us, you're going to have to get used to it."

"That always happens?" _Okay, so maybe these people are strange, but I'm only staying with them for a few days. _

"Unfortunately, yes. Luckily Natsu is getting motion sickness at the moment, because if he wasn't, then a fight would break out, and this place would probably be on fire by the end of it."

_Not just strange people. Pyromaniacs as well. _She was starting to regret her decision to travel with the circus, and wondering if it was better to just keep walking through the hail.

"They're not all like that, though." Said the red head, causing Lucy to almost collapse with relief. "There are some sane members, and I consider myself to be one of them. I'm the knife thrower, Erza Scarlet." She smiled. "Welcome to Fairy Tail!"

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><p><em><strong>So…that's chapter 1. Kinda short, I know. <strong>_

_**So, a list of people, and what they do in the circus:**_

_**Natsu: Fire eater  
>Erza: Knife throwersword swallower  
>Lucy: Escapologist (celestial spirit magic = keys= locks=escapology)<br>Wendy: Trapeze artist  
>Levy: Mind reader<br>Thunder legion; Hypnotists  
>Makarov: Ringmaster<br>Cana: Fortune teller  
>Gray: Not sure. Possibly some kind of cold endurance thing?<br>Laxus: Something similar to Gray, but with electricity  
>The Strauss siblings: Animal tamers<br>I have absolutely no idea what to have the rest of them as, so please leave suggestions! (Gajeel and Juvia will show up later. I'm not sure what to do with Juvia…)**_

'_**till next chapter…**_

_**~Nemo **_


End file.
